Golf club



Fig. 2.

BARKLEY GOLF CLUB Filed Nov.

June 1929' Patented June 4, 1929.

' WILLIAM :B. BARKLEY, or

GOLF

NEWTON, MASSACHUSETTS.

CLUB.

. Application filed November 8, 1927. Serial No. 231,967.

This invention relates to improvements in golf clubs and is illustrated'herein as embodied in a golf club having the portion ofits shaft adjacent to the head of the club reinforced.

The shafts of golf clubs are commonly made of wood, usually second growth hickory. While tubular steel shafts are used to some extent for clubs having wooden heads, they have been found totally unsuited to use in clubs having iron heads. Shafts. of high grade second growth hickory, in spite of their general excellence, are not as strong as is desirable, particularly at high altitudes where they dry out so rapidly and thoroughly that the wood loses its life and the shaft soon breaks. Even in places where the air has a normal amount of moisture, these wooden shafts break not infrequently, either where the shaft enters the socket of the head or a few inches from the head. Moreover the wooden shafts of golf clubs frequently warp, thus vmaking the club useless.

It is an object of the present invention to overcome the breaking of the wooden shafts of golf clubs and to prevent their warping, in a manner which will not in any way interfere with the natural resiliency of the wood or with the general desirability of the club and which will be within rules of the United States Golf Association. In accordance with my invention this is done by reinforcing the portion of the shaft adjacent to the head of the club with tough, fibrous material of greater strength than the wood of the shaft, that is to say, material which will not fail under stresses which would break a piece of wood of the same dimensions as the reinforcing material. The illustrated club has a shaft provided with an axial reinforcement of hard, twisted rawhide extending approximately one-third of the length of the shaft from its head end and tightly fitting in and filling a hole bored axially of the shaft. It should beunderstood, however, that this particular kind of reinforcement is disclosed herein primarily for purposes of illustration and that other kinds of reinforcement might be used without departing from the invention as defined by the claims,

lVith the above and otherobjects and .fea tures in view, the invention will now be described withreference to the accompanying drawings and pointed out inthe claims In the drawings,

Flg. 1 is a perspective View of a golf'club embodying my invention;

F g. 2 is a view on a larger scale, partly in section, of a portion of the shaft of the club extending from the head end more than halfway toward the grip; and

' Fig. 3 is a perspective view of a piece of hard, twistedraw-hide such as is used to reinforce the shaft shown in Figs. 1 and 2.

The golf club of Fig. l is provided with a head 6 of usual form. and provided with socket 8 in which is inserted the reduced endlO of a wooden shaft 12 formed, for example of second growth hickory, and provided with a suitable grip 14:. A pin or rivet 16 is used to secure the head 6 to the shaft 12 in the usual fashion.

In accordance with the present invention, the shaft 12 iscounter-bored from its head end about one-third-of its length or a little more, orapproximately half the distance from the head 6 to the lower end'of the grip 14. A piece of reinforcing material such as the hard, twisted rawhide, illustrated at 18 in Figs. 2 and 3, and circular in cross section, is fitted tightly in the counter-bore, preferably being glued in place with high grade glue. Such a piece of rawhide, which may be prepared by twisting a strip of rawhide, drying it, and grindingit to cylindrical form, is much stronger'than a piece ofhigh grade hickory of thesame dimensions and thus reinforces the shaft but without diminshing its resiliency or taking away from its desirability or changing its externalappearance in any way. Indeed, apparently the whlp of the shaft is somewhat increased by such a reinforcement as I have found that a golf ball can be driven somewhat further with a club having a shaft of this character than'with a club otherwise identical but pro- "vided with the usual hickory shaft. More'- over the reinforcement helps to resist the tendency of the shaft of a club to warp and in that way prolongs its useful life.

While the invention has been described with reference to a shaft having a rawhide reinforcement, it should be understood-that in its broader aspects the invention is not limited to a shaft reinforced with that material. Nor is it limited to use in clubs hav ing an iron head as is herein illustrated.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim is new and desire to secure by Letters Patent of the United States is 1. A golf club having a shaft provided with an axial reinforcement of hard twisted rawhide tightly filling a hole bored axially of the shaft and extending approximately twisted rawhide glued in and,- filling the counter-bore of the shaft.

3. A Wooden shaft for a golf club having an axial reinforcement of tough, twisted fibrous material of, greater strength than the Wood of the shaft extending a substantial distance from its head end toward its grip.

4. A Wooden shaft for a golf club having a portion thereof extending from its head end reinforced with tough, twisted, fibrous material of greater strength than the Wood ofthe shaft.

5. A shaft for a golf club counter-bored from itsh'ead end a substantial distance with a reinforcement of hard, twisted rawhide tightly fillinguthe counter-bore of the shaft.

In testimony whereof I have signed my name to this specification. I WILLIAM B. BARKLEY. 

